Administrator Interview

Its that time of year when the anxiety and rush to find a job begins! (Except... I still have until 2017 before I can begin applying, but its never too early to start!) I was lucky enough to complete a mock interview with both principals at Mohawk High School. I realized I need to make TONS of improvements when answering questions. I didn't just get practice with interviews, I also received some crucial information from an administrators side of interviews. Here are some of the pointers I received.

• Administrators like to see candidates align their professional portfolios along with the 4 domains of teacher effectiveness. This shows that the candidate is prepared to follow along with the Pennsylvania SAS website and can portray all 4 domains. 

• Create a tri-fold brochure for everyone of the interviewers. There isn't enough binders to create to go around. They are able to glance through your brochure that hits on the important parts of your binder.

• When they ask if you have any questions, always ask questions. I asked a question about the school becoming a one-to-one school with technology. They said to turn the question into something useful. With a question like that I could have a conversation about using that technology in my agricultural classroom. 

As you can see, I really learned a lot from this interview. These tips have been very helpful in trying to prepare for a future career. 

And so the journey ends here... (Week 15)

Over the past four months I have spent my time at Mohawk High School as their student teacher. I started out as a shy teacher. I was afraid of EVERYTHING going wrong! But... I have grown more in these past four months than I could have imagined. Not only did I become a better educator, but I learned about who I am as that educator. I figured out that I live by the phrase "learning by doing." Students pick up the most when learning from real-world experiences. I have had so many projects fail in the classroom that I learned from those failures and grew as a teacher. My students picked up on this behavior and reflected after lessons with me on why something failed and how to make it better.

At Mohawk, I taught a total of 5 classes. These consisted of Advanced Single Cylinder Engines, Welding, Ag Business Management, Building Masonry, and Electricity. YES! This is a wide variety of classes. Each class was unique and taught me something new each day. When I first began, I didn't feel I knew enough content or had the best lessons to engage the students because this school is ag mechanics based. (I am more of a horticultural person). I learned all kinds of content as well as classroom management within the shop setting.

Along with the classes, I got to serve as an FFA advisor and role model for the students involved in the program. I had the opportunity to attend conferences, conventions, and conduct SAE visits. I pretty much got a glimps of what it is like to be an agricultural teacher.

Today, as I was saying my final remarks as a student teacher, I realized that I never want to leave. I am going to miss this chapter of my life. Those students will always be my first students. My chapter at Penn State University and Mohawk is slowly coming to a close and my chapter with the United States Marine Corps begins to write itself. Semper Fidelis!

SAE Visit #2

My second SAE visit was with a student in my Ag Business Management class. She is a senior at Mohawk and has kept amazing records on her projects thus far. She has records on her market hog, market steers, and breeding ewe. This students has grown her project from simply raising and showing market animals to raising and breeding animals to raise for the fair.

Mr. Wallace and I had visited her farm where the livestock is located. This consisted of a multiple acre farm with about 3 barns. It was a nice set up for raising cattle. It is her first year raising a market hog, but she is accommodating it well.

I prepared for this visit by reviewing her record books. I made sure her records were up to date, she had good descriptions, and to get to know her projects better. She is mainly holding projects in the area of entrepreneurship. This students has kept up amazing records, very clean and healthy environment for the livestock, and has utilized her skills to select strong, healthy animals. She has earned a high evaluation on her projects based on the criteria of record keeping and the progress of her projects. I would recommend that she improves her planning sections. I feel that she could have a deeper learning goal coming from each one.

My students have been making me proud with their SAE projects. This last visit has brought back my memories in the program. I cannot wait to hear about how her projects finish out during the fair!

Making my way down South... (ST visit)

Today, I went to West Perry High School located in Elliotsburg, PA. I had the pleasure of observing Mr. Holt for the day! This day was very different for me. I am used to seeing students work in the shop almost all day. Today, the students were in classroom desks for majority of the classes. Here is a glimps in my day!

• Small Animal Science Class - This was the first class of the day. One of his students had brought in a chicken ready for dissection! Mr. Holt took this opportunity and ran with it. He used it for students to learn the parts of a digestive system from hands on learning. It was a really cool activity that (some) students loved! 
• Large Animal Science Class - In this class, students were learning about large animal gestation periods. Today's topic in particular was ruminants. This was a typical lesson with a slide show and discussion at the end of class. The discussion changed the environment up a bit for him to continue getting the students attention. 
• Wildlife Class - In this class, students learned about identifying birds and bird calls. The students really got into this lesson. Mr. Holt gave the students enough time in between each bird to try and recognize the call. This was the best class of the day for him. His personality shined through while teaching this class. 

I also got to talk with Mr. Hines for a bit. They have a very strong program with SAE and FFA involvement. I got to ask a couple questions about implementing SAE in the classroom and the best way to get students started. I learned to have students complete one project as a class together. This way there is less confusion and more learning! 

This visit had a lot of benefits. I got to see how a fellow student teacher has grown in the classroom and tour another program in our lovely state of Pennsylvania! 

PS. Matt, you are doing an awesome job! Only 4 more instructional days to go. Keep up the awesome work. 

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere! (Week 14)

This week was pretty spectacular! I had been waiting for this week all semester long. In my Ag Business Management class, we are doing a unit on floral design. To incorporate business, I held the first flower sale that Mohawk has ever had. Last week, I taught the students how to make a centerpiece. They all looked at me like with a blank stare. Now that the students know what to do, they just go! We sold and made a total of 22 pre-ordered arrangements. This whole unit was a blast to teach, but there are a lot of things I would do differently.

1. Open it up to all high school faculty and staff. The students wanted to sell to their families instead. I thought, "Why not?" We only received about 17-18 orders from the students. The week the orders were due, I opened it up to faculty and staff because I wanted to try and sell at least 20. We got all the orders in a couple days later than expected, but it still worked out in the end. I needed to get the order forms out earlier and to the right people. The students didn't push the sale, which is why we didn't get as many orders as expected. 
2. Have students create a mock-up arrangement to use for the flyer. This would have given people a clearer picture of what the arrangement would look like. This could have helped with the sales a lot more. 
3. Teach students about pricing before the centerpiece sale. I tried to do this... but I went over it really quickly. The students got really confused. I needed to take one to two days to go through with students how to price a flower arrangement. Students would be less confused to what was going on. 

Although there were some downfalls during this sale, students thought it was the best part of class. They see that all the work they did before the sale led up to what was going on. The picture became clear to them. If I am to do this again as a teacher, I would definitely make these changes for a smoother sale. 

Until next week, 

Ms. Yoest

SAE Visit #1 (Conducted Jan. 29, 2016)

My first SAE visit of the year was conducted during school. I wanted to work with a student to start up a project. He was a senior and did not see the value within these projects and felt the need to rebel against it. He proclaimed he had no job after school or took little responsibility/ownership at home. I took on the challenge to help this student see the importance of a project. I started him off with an exploratory project. I tried to base it off of what he could do when he graduates.

During one of our in-service days, we visited the Western Pennsylvania Laborers Union and learned about Future Road Builders. Future Road Builders is a virtual pre-apprenticeship where students can gain hours to prepare them for an apprenticeship in highway construction. I had the idea of making this into an exploratory SAE. He participated in the virtual pre-apprenticeship and kept records on what he accomplished and learned along the way. It was a very simple project, but enough for him to see the value in record keeping.

I will admit this project is not the best one out there. It was a great start for this student though. He saw the value in both Future Road Builders and keeping records in Agricultural Experience Tracker. I would rate this project, based on the criteria, with a rating of 4 (1 meaning not valuable, 5 meaning valuable).

I would check through his records after each SAE day we had in class. I recommended that he put more effort into the planning section. He needed to set goals for him to complete during the project. He also needed to improve his entries.

Students at Mohawk have the opportunity to take a ½ credit course for SAE. These students do not meet up for class, but have to complete their records through AET (Agricultural Experience Tracker). They are graded on completing entries in their journal and keeping their records up to date. 

Integrating Career Development Events

This past Tuesday was one of our last online cohort meetings for #psuaged16! Each time there is a meeting, special guests are brought in to present about topics we want to strengthen in. This week's topic was integrating Career Development Events (CDEs) in the classroom. FFA is an intra-curricular part of agricultural education. I had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Mike Clark and Ms. Krista Pontius and interview a a Pennsylvania ag teacher about CDEs. Here is what I learned!

• Almost all students love to compete in CDEs. Students want to compete in these contests. They create connections between the classroom and CDEs. They take what they learned and apply it to the contest. They can also take what they learned from a CDE and in the classroom and connect it with their Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE). FFA, SAE, and classroom instruction all fall under the three-circle model to create a uniform agricultural program. 

• During the interview, I learned more about coaching students for CDEs. I interviewed Jodie Hoover from Fort Cherry High School. She incorporates some CDEs into her classroom. She believes that all students can benefit from this integration and not just the active members. Jodie also uses time after school to work with students who want to compete in CDEs. Her resources are National FFA, Quizlet, and the PA FFA website just to name a few. Her advice to a beginning teacher is to try and attend as many CDEs as you can. Each one offers a different opportunity. The more you know about a CDE, the more help you can give a student to prepare. 

This online cohort meeting helped me have a better understanding of preparing students for CDEs through the classroom. I made connections back to my previous classes of AEE 311, 412, and my current class of 495. We hit a lot on CDEs in AEE 311. I also created a CDE Success Plan that I utilize for my student teaching. In 412, we discussed integrating CDEs into lessons. In my internship, I am always working with students to prepare them for CDEs. Everything I learned is coming round for me during this internship. So far, I have helped students in Extemporaneous public speaking, Small Gas Engines CDE, and Floriculture CDE. I have one student continuing on to Regionals for Extemporaneous and others wanting to attend State Days for Floriculture. 

Community Based Unit of Instruction

During my 15 week internship I completed a Community Based Unit of Instruction in my Advanced Single Cylinder Engines class. I spent the entire time of teaching this course building up to this unit called Maintenance and Repair.  This unit consisted of students completing maintenance and repairs on community members' engines. The have to identify the problem (if there is one) and repair it to working order. It took weeks of preparation, so here is a basic timeline of what happened.

• Fall semester: The unit was created and revised to meet the school's needs. 
• January-March: Students learned about troubleshooting ignition systems, compression, and fuel systems. 
• Early March: The flyer was created, edited, and sent out to school faculty, staff, and community members. Students created and edited a brochure on fall/winter maintenance. 
• Late march-April: Students begin receiving engines from the community. They break off into teams to complete the work. When they finish with an engine, they are to complete an engine analysis sheet. One copy will stay with Mohawk, and another will be sent with the customer. The students would meet up with the customers to converse about the engine. Students would inform the community about their brochure and how to prevent further damage to their engine. 

So.. that gave a simple timeline of preparation for the project and the project itself. There are some other small details along the way. This project needed no funding. The owner of the engine was responsible for the cost of parts, but were not charged for labor. The students were completing the project for the experience of working in a shop, troubleshooting, and informing the public. 

What would I have done differently?

As I reflect back onto this experience, I would have tweaked a couple items. First, I would change some of the lessons used to lead up to the project. I tried a lot of hands-on troubleshooting lessons, but I feel like the students could have used more lessons on theory. Secondly, I would have changed the way students prepared the brochure. They did a great job on it, but I need to change the way I facilitate that portion. Students didn't understand how to create a brochure. Lastly, I would have stressed the importance early on of completing engines in a timely manner. Some groups drug their work out, while others worked just fine. 

Overall, this service learning project went much better than I could have expected. Most of my issues with this were on the facilitation end of things. With due time, these kinks will be worked out and the project would run flawlessly. My students enjoyed the hands-on experience, and the community enjoys supporting the agricultural classes.

Western Region PAAE Meeting

I have been a student member of Pennsylvania Association of Agricultural Educators for almost a year. Through this organization, I have attended 3 meetings. One of this organizations purpose is to help Pennsylvania agricultural teachers continue growing with professional development and networking. This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to attend the Western Region PAAE meeting. Here are some points I picked up on during my time there. 

• Network!! Reach out to other companies within the industry in Pennsylvania. You can bring home so much information home to better prepare your students to obtain an industry job. We had the opportunity to speak with Scott Sheely from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. He opened up to us about the need for certain careers in Pennsylvania. He stressed to us the importance of preparing these future workers in our agricultural classrooms. Networking with industry opens up a multitude of doors for your program and students. 

• Professional Development is a vital part of education, especially agricultural education. Technology is constantly changing around us and affecting the way agriculture is. We have to bring these changes into the classroom, but this is on a bigger scale. Tuesday night, we learned about the NOCTI exam. This exam is for completer of the ag program. Through meeting the representative for our area, we can have a better understanding of the exam. This could help us prepare our students or test proctors when the time comes. 

This PAAE meeting has helped me better my network and improve my knowledge. This will help me in the classroom to better prepare my students. I know I am just in an internship position right now, but I see the importance of continuing to grow throughout your career. I plan to grow through the Marine Corps and professional organizations such as PAAE. 

Sometimes you just have to take care of yourself (Week 13)

This was a very short week for me. I have spent only two days in the classroom. I learned a very valuable lesson this week. But first... let me tell you how it went.

• Monday went very well. I picked up a new class and dropped the electricity course. That makes 3 classes I am teaching right now. I got to begin my unit on Floral Design and life was good! I was starting to feel a little under the weather, but just thought it was from the changing environment. Tuesday rolls around and I begin teaching my third period class. Fourth period goes by well and so does fifth. By sixth period I could barely say a word! My voice was gone and my throat was super sore. I tried to save my voice for the PAAE meeting that night, but was in so much pain the whole time and still couldn't say a word. I was really looking forward to teaching on Wednesday and attending the Career Development Events on Thursday, but I was told to stay home. I did come in to teach floral design because we had live materials. 

• This week taught me that I need to take time to let myself heal. Going from a major toothache to not being able to talk within a week is not going to help my students get better in the classroom. For students to perform their best, I need to be on my best performance. I cannot do this when I can't even communicate clearly with the class. It kills me to be sitting at home instead of in the classroom, but sometimes you need that time to take care of yourself so you can perform better within the classroom. 

I learned this week that I need to take time and let my voice (and tooth!) heal before I take another wack at it in the classroom. Next week is a new week with a better, healthier self! 

I look forward to sharing my adventures of the centerpiece sale next week!

Ms. Yoest

Fundraisers... Fundraisers Everywhere! (Week 12)

Preping the shop

Time just becomes more filled with FFA activities and events as my student teaching experience is dwindling down. Last week, we had our Sausage Sale! Students cleaned the shop, cut, ground, seasoned, and packaged pork. This type of fundraiser is different for me. I have never been part of a program where they put together and sell meat. I learned a lot from this activity and so did the students. Here is what I have learned...

• You have to be strict with taking students out of class. When students find out how much fun it is to work in the ag shop for the day, they want to come back down or stay there. The advisor's job was to make sure students were going to their classes, no one was skipping class, and students were following procedures. Students will try to be tricky. They will do anything to get out of class. I have found it best to give incoming classes the procedures and task outside of the classroom, then round them up at the end of the period. This way you make sure the students are going in, washing their hands, and leaving. 

• You can never plan too far ahead. Going through inventory, collecting orders, and preparing the shop are all important for this type of fundraiser. 

• Have fun with it! I joined the students throughout the day when stations lacked help. It was a relaxed environment to get to better know your students. 

Morning pep talk with Mr. Wallace

This fundraiser was a new experience for me. I have never done anything like it before. The community, students, and school faculty love this fundraiser. This year we cut, ground, and packed 2,400 pounds of sausage. It was a successful sale and a successful learning experience!

Until next week,
Ms. Yoest

How hard is it to find down time? (Week 11)

This is a really short week with only 3 school days. Students are wound up, teachers are stressed, and Easter is right around the corner. The grading period ends on Wednesday and Easter break begins! With that being said, there is so much that needs to get done in so little time...

Adv Engines working on the engines brought in by the community

• Time management isn't something I normally struggle too hard with. I come home from school, get my work done, and relax. Now that FFA activities are picking back up, it's time for contests and late nights to get the work done. This week has been jam packed with events. Monday night was the student teacher get together, Tuesday night is the public speaking contest and online meeting, and Wednesday my break begins. I have to keep up on lesson plans, grading papers, and getting students caught up in class. Trying to manage all this can make one person go crazy.

Cleaning carburetors in Adv Engines

• Solution! I have found that if I break up my work between school and home I can get way more done. Trying to get the papers graded at school keeps me from loosing them in transport. I save my lesson plans and online grading for at home. I spend time during my prep periods with students who are preparing for the contests. It is a busy day. I realize that this is only dipping my toes into what a full time ag teacher does, but it's important to manage your time now than to struggle later. 

Until next time,

Ms. Yoest

The wheels are turning (Week 10)

So, I never thought it would take this long to try and fix minor issues in my teaching styles. Week 10 is over and done with. All 5 days I spent trying to perfect the way I taught my electricity class. During week 9 I had some errors that I fixed, but I knew that wasn't enough. I still had students standing around in my class while the rest were taking credit for their actions. Here are some snapshots from my week...

• Lows: Students were still doing nothing during the class. These students are trying to wire mock bathrooms. They are broken into two teams and each has their own bathroom. There is limited work space for the amount of students enrolled in the class. I tried to give the students a "role" and become more hands off. That didn't work. 

• High: As I sat at my desk on Wednesday pondering my thoughts, it finally clicked. I was on the right track with giving students a job, but I didn't give them the right jobs. Here, I was getting so frustrated with the students when it was the way I was facilitating it. I assigned a foreman for both teams, wire runners, and cable preparations. After day one of this, I brought it full front for the students. I asked them why we had foremans and what it was like to work for one. 

This class was finally coming together. After two full weeks of trying to perfect my facilitation, I finally got it right. It still isn't perfect, but it is much better than it was. Students even came up to me after class and said that Thursday and Friday went so much better. Most of my student teaching experience I was able to solve issues in a matter of 2-3 days. This was the first time I failed for almost 2 weeks straight. It is going to take me years to perfect my teaching, but I have came a long way thus far. 

Until next time,

Ms. Yoest

State Legislative Leadership Conference 2016

This was one trip I never got to attend when I was in high school. This was a new experience for me. This conference was all about the legislative systems. We took 2 students with us. It was a 4.5 hour drive to get there. There were so many high points to attending this conference. I got the experience of a lifetime.

• Judging proficiency awards takes time. I helped all day on Sunday to look through and judge these applications. I got to see all the hard work that went into these applications and books. This is something I can take with me wherever I go. 

• I learned that you don't always need to be serious. There are times and places to be serious, but it was nice to have fun with my students and cohort members. We made the most out of our trip to Harrisburg.

Enjoying the weather and playground after community service

Community Service at a Harrisburg Church

• Lastly, I learned to take opportunities and run with them. We decided to go to the capitol building to meet up with the legislatures from Lawrence county. We discussed the bills that were going through the House and Senate at the current moment. It is important to try and meet up with your local representatives. It got your name and cause out to them personally. They remember you and your stories. 

Representative Sainato giving us a tour of the Capitol Building

I took away so much from just these 3 days in Harrisburg. I loved every minute of it. This experience as well as my others are starting to add up. There are 6 more weeks left of student teaching. It is time to make the most of the rest of my time at Mohawk. 

Electrical Fail (week 9)

I have another very short teaching week consisting of only two days! It is week 9 and I still have so much to learn. This week in particular I had a super rough lesson in electricity. I thought I had it all planned out the way it would work. Well… it ended up going very bad. Here is what happened.

•  Monday and Tuesday were spent at the State Legislative Leadership Conference. A substitute teacher was in charge of our class those two days. I left my lesson plans in their hands… and nothing got done. I learned that no matter what you have prepared and how well it is prepared, it is up to the substitute teacher to instruct the students to get the work done.

•  Wednesday was my first day back. The students finished up their projects and are beginning to work in teams to wire mock bathrooms. They are to work in two groups to estimate the amount of wire needed to complete the bathroom. They were to take string and run it the way they would run the wire to calculate the correct amount of footage. I was afraid to cut the string too short, so I just had one group working and the other one sitting. (here is where my lesson starts to turn for the worse) The students in the non-working group just sat there and didn’t get any educational value from the other group working. Tomorrow, I am going to have the students try it again. This time, I am going to split the ball of string for both groups to work.

 

Although the week is not over yet, I had a learning moment within the first day. Tomorrow is a new day with a new start. Time to get back on my feet and try again!

Until next time,

Ms. Yoest

Becoming confident in the classroom (week 8)

It is the 8th week of student teaching. The honey moon stage of teaching has come and gone. For the most part, everything is going well! The students are having fun, learning, and being very respectful. Well... except for a few students. Here are some highs and lows from student teaching.

• Lows - I have some very disrespectful students in my classes. I have tried everything from giving them zeros to taking away the "fun" activities. I have been talking with some individuals and they have gave me some great ideas. One idea I am going to try is calling their parents, or threaten to call their parents. Keeping the parents in the loop of the child's behavior and grade in the class might help the situation.

• Highs - I am becoming reinforcive as an instructor in my welding class. Students are starting to drag their feet because they are either never in class or always going to the nurses office. I had some individual talks with students to try and get the ball rolling. Most students it has worked on. I have been working on the courage and finding the right words when talking to students about their participation. 

I can't believe week 9 is right around the corner. We are over half way done! This week was just as much of a learning week as the others. I continue to grow as an educator and a mentor for these students and I am loving every minute of it. 

Until next week, 

Ms. Yoest

Not everyone has a successful experiment (week 7)

As a teacher, there are going to be successes and there are going to be errors that can ruin a project. This week I had the worse experience with the embryology project. Everyone was excited for the eggs to hatch. They were all due on Wednesday. One chick hatched. He was a lone survivor in a sea of 23 other eggs.... And then he died within a matter of hours. The class and I had patiently waited over the next two days, but nothing happened.

Instead of just throwing the eggs out, I candled them Thursday night. There was nothing inside them. Some had begun to grow, but they died within the first two weeks of incubation. So I had all these incubated eggs and no chicks. As part of the learning experience, I wanted them to candle and crack the eggs. Two of the 10 eggs they cracked were in the beginning stages of incubation. They died within the first two weeks. The kids got to see the half grown embryo. It was a great learning experience.

This week I learned to take a failed experience and turned it around to be a great learning experience. The kids learned more from this than they could have if all the chicks had hatched.

Mohawk was chosen by a local farmer to obtain a $2,500 grant through Monsanto. The students spent some time after school meeting with the local farmer and Monsanto representative. With this grant, they are going to buy some Ipad minis. These Ipads will allow students to use apps and the internet to look up technical manuals and other materials for shop classes.

Some other things we had done this week was attend meet your state officer night at Hoss's. We also took the square dance team to Challenges to entertain and teach square dancing to elderly people. Stay tuned for next week were we begin planting in the greenhouse and our trip to SLLC!

Until next week,
Ms. Yoest

My first 2 day week! (Week 6)

This past week was nothing extravagant or troubling. It started out with our first large snow storm. A little bit of ice covered by 9 inches of snow caused our first snow day! I spent the day preparing lesson plans and grading papers. It was a good extra break before heading back into the classroom. So my week started on Wednesday. Here are some snapshots from my very short week.

Just a glimpse of our snow

• This snow day taught me to be flexible. I needed to rearrange all my classes, especially an exam, to accommodate this news. Flexibility is important in any teaching job. This week I had to make some hard decisions to push a test back two days. Not only did the snow day make me flexible, but student work pace has too as well. All students work at a different pace. 

The musical stage coming together

• It's time to be a big girl and begin thinking about where I want to teach agriculture. On Friday, I met up with the rest of my cohort to attend job prep boot camp. I realize how important it has been to keep up with my resume and cover letter over the years. It had made for minor changes this year. Even when your in high school, it is important to have a resume. It would be a great starting point to prepare them for a job. With this information, I want to incorporate resume writing for my seniors. 

Preparing for the big basketball tournament

This week was a short one. I had only 2 days in the classroom, so there isn't much to discuss or reflect on. Friday was a great professional development day to reflect on the previous weeks of student teaching and prepare for future interviews. 

This week will be an exciting week, so look out for social media posts about our incubation project!

Until next week, 

Ms. Yoest

Wait... What are we doing? (Week 5)

So week 5 has come and gone. You know that thing called the "honeymoon phase"? Yea, its over. This was by far my hardest week yet. I picked up my 4th class about a week ago. I was an electrical class. I though to myself, how hard can it really be? This week I learned that patients is a virtue.


As the week went on, the students started to show their true colors. They had their phones out constantly, never paid attention, and I had the same question asked to me at least 4 times during the lesson.

"So what do we have to do?"

Demonstration team doing what they do best

I knew my lecture and directions were pretty clear, because the one half of the room started to work right away. The other half didn't pay attention at all! I got the same question from the same students each day. I was constantly repeating myself. As I sit back and think about those days, I wonder if things could have gone better if I had a listening signal or have just said it once. This article is from Edutopia has some cool ideas to get students to listen. Instead of repeating myself to produce "Lazy Listeners," I am going to try hand signals to gain attention. This is all part of trying to create a classroom environment that suites the students. Every class is different. 

This week also had some amazing points. I got the opportunity to attend the Rotary meeting with Mr. Wallace and the 1st place Demonstration team. The students displayed their skills with a run through of their winning speech. On Friday, I got to join the Ag and Tech departments on a professional development field trip. We visited the Western Pennsylvania Laborer's Training Center. We were able to get an insight on their facilities and how their training works. We also got the opportunity to learn about Lindy Paving and a virtual training program that will allow for students to get an idea on highway construction work. Both of these working areas are in need of young people to join their crews. With this insight, we are able to present to the students these opportunities waiting for them outside of school. 

Until next week,

Ms. Yoest

Ag Teachers Do What?! (Week 4)

All my nights during the end of week 3 and week 4 were spent for students! It is crazy how much effort teachers put in after school hours. Over the past two weeks, I have been trying to plan for the embryology project in the ag business management course. This is how the activities went down.

Preparing for incubation!

Lows: I ordered 2 dozen eggs through a website and set for them to be delivered the week of the 18th (in January). I patiently waited for those eggs to arrive. The following week, I had still not received any information on where my eggs were at. After numerous phone calls and trips to the post office, the eggs had arrived the following Wednesday. It took me two days to figure out which post office the eggs had arrived to. 

Highs: When we began the incubation process, the students were ecstatic! They couldn't wait to see the life cycle these chickens will go through. I have had so many volunteers want to take the eggs home already. Those students had the look of joy on their face. I don't even have to pull teeth to get volunteers to turn the eggs each day. 

All in the course of two weeks, I have caught a glimpse of what ag teachers do for their students. And this was just one class out of the 5 I will be teaching! Students don't see that effort that teachers put in after school, but it is all worth it to see that look on their faces.

Until next week, 

Ms. Yoest

Flip of the Switch (Week 3)

Students practicing ignition troubleshooting

This week had its ups and downs. It became more hectic than the previous week. I began teaching 3 classes now, while preparing for 4 for the next week. So let’s start with the lows.

Lows: I noticed throughout the week that students weren’t really paying attention during my ag business course, so I decided to schedule a quiz for Friday. I gave the students multiple opportunities to ask me question, learn the information, and even went over the answers to the quiz the day before! As I was grading the quizzes, I was not happy with the overall scores of the class. I had some students only get two right, with a word bank! It really hurt me to see how students didn’t pay any attention or study.

Students in building class are learning how to cut angles

Build class constructing the stage for school musical 

Highs: Something amazing happened on Friday. I finally had that teacher moment. The switch flipped from student to teacher for me. I remembered why I love teaching. I remembered why I chose this major. It happened during the welding class. The one class I thought I was going to have troubles with turns out to be the most fun to teach! Every time I would turn around there would be a student calling my name. That is when it clicked. This is why I want to be an Agricultural teacher. I look forward to teaching this class the rest of the year.

This week definitely had its highs and lows, but that is what teaching is all about. I can’t wait to pick up the electrical class next week.

Until next time,

Ms. Yoest

Take 2!

Week 2 has came and gone quicker than I had imagined! I picked up the Ag Business Management course. It has been a learning week for me. I had high points and I had low points throughout the week.

Egg Dissection in 4th period class

• High Points: I got one student to volunteer in the classroom. All week I had tried to get students to volunteer answering questions. They sat there like bumps on a log! Eventually I told them ill start pulling names out of a hat to answer questions and that's when I got my first volunteer! Another high point I had was getting to know the students and the special education teacher. When you get some of the students on your side, they bring the whole class around. Knowing the special education teacher will create a connection to work together and not against each other. They gave me tips on how to interact with a student in my class. I learned they are on your side and willing to help. 

• Low Points: I didn't get my point across the second lesson in. I left students in more confusion than learning. I asked a few of the students after class how they liked it. They like the egg dissection, but they would have liked to have a worksheet with pictures instead of descriptions. For the future lessons, it is important to understand the parts of an egg. I will be going over, this time with a picture, the parts of an egg. 

Overall, this week was a great learning week for me. I got to experience a 2 hour delay schedule, FFA meeting, and beginning to put together a parliamentary procedure team. Week two has came to a close and now for week 3 to begin with 2 more classes to teach. 

Until next week, 

Ms. Yoest

Evolving High School Education

Education is evolving through the use of technology. Today I had the opportunity to sit in on Mr. Castor's Biology 10 class and see the technology being used. He used a variety of techniques throughout the lesson as well. The main item I picked up on was the use of Google Classroom.  Here is what I picked up from him.

• Google classroom should be used and not abused. Some teachers use it to teach the class. Instead, Mr. Castor uses it for testing students, in class questions or warm up, and giving direct feedback to student grades. This tool is changing the future of education. Seeing it being used within the classroom gets me thinking of what I can do in Ag Business Management. 
• Address bad student behavior with those students directly. One thing I noticed was he waited until the end of class to address certain students about their behavior in class. This way, the other students were not disrupted. 
• Facilitate learning, don't just give away information. I watched how he took his time to make sure the students were grasping the content. He asked effective questions to review the stages of mitosis. He made students learn without them even knowing it. 

This was a great classroom to observe. I learned how to utilize google classroom, addressing student behavior, and ways to facilitate learning instead of spoon feeding students. I hope to try google classroom during my student teaching experience. 

Week #1

This week went by fast! I only had one and a half days in the classroom observing Mr. Wallace and Mr. Schirmer. While observing, I picked up on a lot of tricks to use in the classroom. Here are a few of them.

•   Individual student help goes a long way in the classroom. Both instructors walk around during welding and electrical to help students who looked like they were struggling or just to watch and see how they are doing.
•   Review, Review, review! The first few minutes of class it is always important to review from the day before. It gets the students thinking and prepared for the day in the classroom.
•   Notice student behavior whether it is good or bad. Having a substitute teacher for three days is a long time for students. They begin to feel like they can do anything in class and not finish their work. It is important to read those sub reports on how the students were. When they are bad they need to have some sort of punishment for their actions. When they are good it is worthwhile to reward them for their behavior.
•  Lastly, show importance of knowing the information. Mostly, students don’t know the importance of knowing the information. Showing them that the information in the real world brings it all around for them. I noticed that both instructors choose assignments that pertain to real life situations.

With all this in mind, I feel like I can conquer the classroom. Students react to reviewing, individual help, and knowing the real life importance of what they learn in the class. Seeing how well the students react to the teachers gives me hope of a successful student teaching experience. 

Pennsylvania Farm Show

So the day has finally come for me to be out in the field as Ms. Yoest. I began my student teaching experience at the Pennsylvania Farm Show on Monday. I stayed with Mohawk until Wednesday. The 3 days were filled with contests, award recognition, and fun moments.

Mohawk FFA Square Dance Team

I gained many thoughts while on this trip, but my lightbulb moment was during the competitions. The square dance team and the demonstration team spent hours upon hours practicing to become  a uniform team. I watched how they bonded together each day of the trip. Their practices were filled with passion and fun. I watched how the students got nervous and began talking fast, but Mr. Wallace just fixed his ball cap and cracked a joke to relieve some stress.

In all seriousness, you don't need to stress the students out over a competition. Make sure they practice, have a fun time, and don't be afraid to crack a joke here and there.

Mohawk FFA Demonstration Team